The INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, and History (TERPRO) promotes and supports research on Quaternary topics related to terrestrial environments and history, especially in areas that investigate new frontiers in science and incorporate multiple and cross-disciplinary research efforts, multi-national research and involve developing countries. TERPRO encourages the development of projects that link research on Quaternary continental environments and tectonics together with the mitigation of societal impacts from natural hazards, such as desertification, extreme climatic events, and earthquakes.

The new intercongress period (2016-2019) is expected to be full of scientific challenges for the Commission. In fact, TERPRO arguably is the Commission which: i) cover the wider spectrum of Quaternary disciplines, ii) coordinates the largest number of International Focus Groups (IFG's) and Projects, iii) received a major share of INQUA funding, and iv) generated most relevant results in 2012 to 2015, in terms of both scientific production and quality/quantity of International Meetings.

Please join our Commission, if you are working in Soil and Paleosols, Floods and their Quaternary Record, Lakes and Paleolimnological Records, Glaciated Mountain Belts and Periglacial Environments, Active Tectonics and Paleoseismicity, Dust and Deserts, Global Large Aquifers and Paleogroundwater, and the interaction between these Terrestrial Processes and the Society, this is the right place for you.

TERPRO supported the participation of a very relevant number of young scientists from all over the world to scientific events in the past 4 years, and is planning to further involving Early Career Scientists in the Commission Executive Team. We work for the continuing growth of this scientific network, increasing the international outlook, and the cross-disciplinary perspective: we are ready to host your contribution.

During the INQUA Executive Committee Meeting in Washington DC (USA, March, 2016) were approved the TERPRO Focus Area Groups that are listed below. If you are interested in being involved in one of the planned activities of these IFGs or Projects, please contact to one of the leaders for further information.

International Focus Groups for the intercongress period 2016-2019

1 - IFG 1616F: G@GPS: Groundwater and Global Palaeoclimate Signals (Jianyao Chen, CHINA; Dioni I. Cendón, AUSTRALIA; Rein Vaikmäe, ESTONIA; Najiba Chkir Ben Jemâa, TUNISIE; Jason J. Gurdak, USA; Sylvi Haldorsen, NORWAY; Roland Purtschert, SWITZERLAND, Martine J. van der Ploeg, THE NETHERLANDS and Marcela Perez, ARGENTINA). Contact: chenjyao@mail.sysu.edu.cn

2 - IFG 1617F: GEODUST: GEOmorphology of DUST sources and dynamics of dust emission from different geomorphic units (Onn Crouvi, ISRAEL and Andrea Zerboni, ITALY). Contact: crouvi@gsi.gov.il

3- IFG 1618F: EGSHaz: Earthquake Geology and Seismic Hazards (Ioannis Papanikolaou, GREECE; Petra Stepancíková, CZECH REPUBLIC; Christoph Grützner, UK; Beau Whitney, AUSTRALIA; Yael Braun, ISRAEL and Jakub Stemberg, CZECH REPUBLIC). Contact: i.pap@aua.gr

4- IFG 1621F: QUASAP: Kinds and Rates of soil-forming processes reflected in Quaternary soils and paleosols and their use as palaeoenvironmental archives (Daniela Sauer, GERMANY; Sergey Sedov, MEXICO; Denis Dahms, USA; Markus Egli, SWITZERLAND; Fabio Scarciglia, ITALY; Pauline Da Costa, TOGO and Mike Akaegbobi, NIGERIA. Contact: daniela.sauer@geo.uni-goettingen.de

5- IFG 1622F: HEX: Palaeohydrology and fluvial archives - extreme and critical events (Jürgen Herget, GERMANY and Alessandro Fontan, ITALY). Contact: herget@giub.uni-bonn.de